Postal slowdown means Midway shutdown

The agency is closing 252 of 487 sorting centers nationwide to stay solvent

The Midway sorting facility would shut down under a new bankruptcy avoidance plan by the U.S. Postal Service, although officials are hopeful they could still offer retail service there or in the area.
— John Gibbins

The Midway sorting facility would shut down under a new bankruptcy avoidance plan by the U.S. Postal Service, although officials are hopeful they could still offer retail service there or in the area.
— John Gibbins

San Diego’s Midway mail sorting center would shut down next spring, one of hundreds nationwide to close under a bankruptcy-avoidance plan that the U.S. Postal Service announced on Monday is moving ahead.

Under the plan, the closure of 252 out of 487 processing facilities nationwide would result in slowing the delivery of first-class mail by a day.

The cuts are in addition to the earlier-planned closing of 3,700 post offices and a 1-cent increase in the cost of first class mail slated for Jan. 22.

In all, roughly 100,000 postal workers could be cut, resulting in savings of up to $6.5 billion a year. The independent agency receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and must shed $20 billion in costs by 2015 to return to profitability after years of declining revenues.

“There has been a dramatic decline in first class mail volume. We are looking to consolidate our plants so we can use them at full capacity,” regional agency spokeswoman Eva Jackson said. “We need those things to happen because by next year we are going to be bankrupt.”

More than 43 billion fewer pieces were sent in the past five years as postal service customers cut back during the weak economy and continued their move online for communications and bill payments. As a result, the agency faces imminent default this month on a $5.5 billion annual retiree health benefits payment and expects to have a record loss of $14.1 billion next year.

Jackson said 347 employees work at the Midway facility, although it is not yet clear what job cuts might occur. On Monday afternoon, the line for postal services at the facilty’s retail facility was 30 customers deep with more than a dozen other customers accessing postal boxes or other services.

“I use this facility a lot. It’s disappointing,” Shannon Schwarz said of the agency’s plan after a visit to the facility. “The line is the longest it’s ever been. It seems like we need more workers, not less.”

Alberto Parra, who has had a post-office box at the facility for three years, said he was concerned about losing the convenience of the location, especially access to the postal services in the late evening.

“I think that’s messed up,” Parra said. “The price is going to go up, but the service is going to go down.”

The postal service announced its intent to sell the 40-year-old facilty in February after deeming it an underutilized asset.

However, Blake Murkin, a broker with CB Richard Ellis in Los Angeles, which represents the postal service in Southern California, said he has not yet been authorized to list the Midway property for sale.

“I will be marketing it as soon as I know something,” Murkin said.

The plan announced Monday is to merge the facility’s operations with the distribution center in Carmel Mountain Ranch, where Jackson said some of the facility’s operations have already moved.